As the August 15th deadline for bank customers to opt in to overdraft protection on their existing accounts looms, banks are trying some innovative new tactics. Nicole tells Consumerist that she visited an ATM Chase branch on a Saturday morning to withdraw some cash, and encountered an employee stationed near the ATMs, asking customers whether they had “made a decision” about their “debit card overdraft coverage.” [More]
Retail Services
Get Amazon Prime Free For 1 Year With .Edu Address
By 7.13.10
Amazon is giving students a free year of Amazon Prime, which gives you free two-day shipping and some other nice bonuses. [More]
Artisanal Is The New Organic
By 7.13.10
There’s a burgeoning artisanal market in the U.S., where goods made by hand or in small batches–and marketed with lots of footnotes and descriptions of quality–are growing increasingly more popular. But why, and is it just a hipster lifestyle ingredient or an actual shift in the larger population? [More]
Save By Starting Your Shopping Trip From The Back Of Store
By 7.12.10
If you want to find the best deals and sale items, it’s wise to head directly to the back of the store and work your way up to the front. [More]
Lindsay Lohan's Jailbird Rep Could Up Sales Of Her Fashion Line
By 7.11.10
The bad news for Lindsay Lohan, as you might be aware by now, is that she’s going to jail soon. The good news for Lindsay’s 6126 line of super awesome pants-are-never-an-option leggings and other apparel? Lindsay Lohan is going to jail! Some pros in the retail field are saying this little stint in the slammer could up sales of the “designer’s” line. [More]
American Apparel's Dov Charney: A Lawbreaker Back In 1987?
By 7.11.10
The next time you zipper yourself into that gold spandex unitard, beware, law-abiding consumer — it was created by a man that could be considered a downright criminal in Toronto! That’s right, beyond the legal troubles already surrounding American Apparel founder Dov Charney — you know, the sexual harassment lawsuits and whatnot — there’s more. [More]
Chase Freezes Long-Time Customer's Accounts With $9.9 Million Overdraft Fee
By 7.10.10
Chase froze Micah’s checking accounts with a $9.9 million overdraft fee after he took the ultra-suspicious step of opening a joint checking account with his girlfriend. Rather than merely freeze the joint checking account, Chase decided to freeze all of Micah’s assets until they could verify that their customer of thirteen years was really whom he said he was. Not even a letter from the Social Security Administration, handed to the local Chase branch and sent to Chase’s fraud unit could stop Micah’s debit card from being canceled. Now Micah has no access to his cash, a $9.9 million charge to his name, and still no joint checking account with his girlfriend. [More]
Amazon Sends Medium-Sized Box Of Air, Includes Free Watch Batteries
By 7.9.10
Amazon chose the worst possible packaging to send this card of watch batteries to catastrophegirl. Well, that’s not true: they could have used an even bigger box and included more air packs. See, she tells Consumerist that the air packs arrived perfectly, but the watch batteries slid between the box flaps and hid. [More]
Want To Get Married At Home Depot? How About TJ Maxx?
By 7.8.10
A few months back, we wrote about a couple in Illinois who tried to combine cheap with hilarious by getting married at a Taco Bell. For better or for worse, it looks like that happy couple is not alone, with an increasing number of people walking down the aisles of retail stores and restaurants. [More]
Apparently A Year's Supply Of Honey Nut Cheerios Is Only 12 Boxes
By 7.8.10
Have you ever dreamed of winning a year’s supply of Honey Nut Cheerios? No? Well, in case you did, you might have imagined a warehouse full of the honeybee-kissed circles of tedium. And you might have imagined incorrectly, because according to General Mills, just 12 boxes of the stuff should get you through a year. [More]
Don't Touch Yourself In The Walmart Electronics Department
By 7.8.10
Of all the feelings one gets while walking the aisles of a Walmart, sexual excitement rarely factors into the spectrum. Unless you were the guy in Louisiana Walmart who was arrested for touching himself while gawking at a young boy in the store’s electric department. [More]
Best Buy Un-Suspends Animator Employee. He Says Take This Job & Shove It
By 7.8.10
Remember that Best Buy employee who was suspended from his job for posting his “iPhone vs. Evo” cartoons online? Well, the box store’s star chamber has conferred and given the young man a stay of execution from his hourly gig. One hitch: He doesn’t really want to go back to working for Best Buy. [More]
Gamestop Suddenly Hates Me, But Doesn't Know Why
By 7.8.10
Lu seems to have annual run-ins with stubborn gaming retailers. Last year, a simple GameCrazy purchase racked up illicit fees and an apology from the chain’s district manager. This year, he writes that Gamestop decided to just deny an online purchase with no obvious problems. Why? Apparently Gamestop’s system just doesn’t like Lu. [More]
Florida Theater: Don't Blame Us For Blackouts
By 7.8.10
Sam snapped this photo of a sign outside a Florida Regal Movie Theater. He doesn’t know what it was that drove the manager to post it. [More]
Last $10 On Visa Gift Card Proves Seemingly Inextractable
By 7.7.10
Kate has a $50 Visa gift card. She used $40 on it and then tried to buy some DVDs for $7, but the card was rejected. What gives? [More]
Walmart Spends $2 Million To Avoid Paying $7,000 Fine
By 7.7.10
Talk about sticking to your principles. Rather than simply pay a $7,000 fine stemming from the Black Friday trampling death of a store employee, Walmart has racked up at least $2 million in legal costs to prove their point. [More]
Recently Deceased Soap Business Says Chase Killed It With Bank Error
By 7.7.10
Bliss Soaps in Seattle is owned by a guy whose family has been making soaps for three generations. The four-year-old business recently had to shut its doors — allegedly over a bank error that froze its accounts during the holiday season. Now there is a goodbye sign on the door and a possible lawsuit pending against Chase. [More]
Dollar Tree Stops Playing Music In Store
By 7.7.10
Ultra-cheap discounter Dollar Tree has turned off the in-store music in all of its stores, citing cost issues. On the company’s Facebook page, shoppers keep complaining that the company is being too cheap (many don’t seem to know about licensing fees for music), but Dollar Tree’s official response is that it freed up expenses to keep prices low. [More]
